Country Music

What is remarkable is that country music is generally presented as a closed shop. If it is not Nashville and was not on the Grand Ole Opre it just is not authentic.

Ken Burns has told the better story: it is all intertwined. Willie Nelson did not succeed in Nashville but he went back to Texas and did what he wanted: jazz, the Great American Song book etc. Many other country stars came from other venues of music. Rock and the always important blues music from blacks is carefully put in place.

This series varies widely from the traditional story of country. On a technical level it points out the use of violin strings, electric guitars and more modern studio techniques.

Though the size of the revenue is not discussed you cannot miss the huge financial rewards that were (and are today) involved. Burns usually leaves the money out. No problem.

I play guitar and sing as an amateur. It is a hobby to me. MAny of the country songs I have been doing for decades. They are just as valid to my music as The Great American songbook and rock. Burns did a great job and the people he used for interviews were very representative of various styles and epochs.

The first episode of Ken Burns' "Country Music" was in most respects an excellent show. It was particularly interesting to see the heavy African-American influence on country music documented, including astonishing photos of Black and white musicians in the same bands at a time when the races were rigidly segregated through most of the South. Indeed, at times it seems as if all American popular music mixes Black roots with something else. Put Black music together with the white marching-band tradition and you get jazz. Put Black music together with Jewish folk music, and you get Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals and the "Great American Songbook." Put Black music together with the English and Irish folk traditions, mix in influences from Latin America and Hawai'i, and you get country music. The portrayals of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were especially interesting and moving -- including those awesome photographs of Rodgers' funeral train drawing the same mourning and apprehensive crowds that President Lincoln's funeral train had drawn nearly 70 years earlier.

But one important name in the history of country music is virtually omitted: Vernon Dalhart. (His name is briefly seen in a newspaper clipping but he's totally unmentioned in the narration.) He was an operatically trained pop singer who had signed a contract with Thomas Edison's record label in 1916. In 1922 Dalhart recorded for Edison "The Wreck of the Old 97," a song he'd written about a real-life mail train disaster outside Danville, Virginia in 1903. Two years later he remade the song for the Victor label and that version sold over one million copies, the first country record to break the million mark. It was the huge success of "The Wreck of the Old 97" that established country music as a commercial genre and led both Victor and its competitors to seek out more artists in this style. "The Wreck of the Old 97" became a country standard and had many cover versions, including ones by Johnny Mercer, Hank Snow and Johnny Cash. A history of country music that omits Vernon Dalhart is woefully incomplete.

Ken Burns has delivered touchstone documentaries on many subjects, the Civil War and Vietnam War amongst them. This on its face is less serious and certainly much more enjoyable but it also delivers a story every bit as important to America's cultural, social and political life. Essential stuff

Great history of country music. Lots of personal interviews and photos. The visuals make it come alive. Very interesting and impartial facts and stories. It's like several biographies condensed into 1.

"Country Music" (2019 mini-series; 8 episodes) is the latest documentary mini-series from Ken Burns. This time around, Burns and his team are bringing us the story of country music. As "Episode One - The Rub (Beginnings - 1933)" opens, we are given some introductory comments from various country celebrities (Kris Kristofferson: "Country is a white man's soul music"), and then we go back to the 1920, when almost in parallel paths, the rise of both radio and the phonograph were instrumental to the exposure of country music to a wider audience. Along the way, we get a country music instruments 101 on the fiddle, the banjo (did you know the banjo was brought over from Africa?), the mandolin and the guitar (mobility of these instruments was key--hence no role in country music for the piano). The second hour of the first episode zeros in on the origins of the Grand Ol' Opry, the Carter family (yes, of June Carter fame), and Jimmie Rodgers.

Couple of comments: "Country Music" aims to achieve what Ken Burns did with the "Jazz" documentary mini-series hoped to achieve. "Country Music" comes in 8 episodes of 2 hours each. That gives Ken Burns and his team a lot of room to explore. I love how the film makers set us up for the detailed account of what happened in the summer of 1927 in Bristol, TN when the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers are "discovered". In the end, a great documentary is all about great story-telling, and Ken Burns and his team have proven, time and again, that they are masterful at that. Having researched this meticulously (and finding a treasure trove of historical recordings, pictures and footage), only enhances the viewing experience.

"Country Music" premiered last night on PBS, and will continue with new 2 hour episodes this week and next through Thursday the 26th. I absolutely loved Episode 1, and can't wait to spend 7 more evenings watching this unfold. If you like a great documentary or are a fan of music history, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it on TV, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion. "Country Music" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

*Update 9/17/19* Episode 2 "Hard Times (1933-1945)" aired yesterday evening, and was more of the same (in the best possible way). "Hard times and country music were made for each other" comments someone, and that is very clear as we see the country struggling through the Great Depression, while hillbilly music continues to grow in popularity. Gene Autry gets extensive coverage, as does Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. But the star of this episode is the Grand Ol' Opry, which finally finds a permanent home in the beautiful Ryan Auditorium...

*Update 9/19/19* Episodes 3 ("Hillbilly Shakespeare 1945-1953") and 4 ("I Can't Stop Loving You 1953-1963") are now in the books, marking the half-way point of the mini-series. Episode 3 focuses on Hank Williams a/k/a the Hillbilly Shakespeare although certainly others are highlighted too: Eddy Arnold, Bill Monroe, Earle Scruggs, the Maddox Brothers & Rose, just to name those. Episode 3 feels like it is the very best of the series. Episode 4 focuses on Johnny Cash, when rockabilly almost destroyed "country" music ("country died on the vine", one comments). Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles are some of the others highlighted in this episode. I get the sense that we have reached crescendo and going forward it will all start to sound quite familiar. Episode 3 marks THE highlight of this documentary mini-series.